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PREFAZIONE ALL’EDIZIONE 1999
When I wrote this book, I did not realize what I’d touch off. I had just written it and that was it. Then, it turned out that it was the first book published in Italy in which certain issues in New Age key were dealt with. And these topics were destined to an incredible sudden growth, together with commercial spin-offs of phony magicians, crystal balls, illumination and initiation rites to pay for, of crystal healing courses by book post (now by mail). So as to collect some gold straws one must have the patience to sift through an entire beach, and New Age trend is no exception. A few years and a few reprints later, this book, untouched, claims its originality and authenticity. It continues to be the only one to stand for the great difference between treatment with aspirin vs treatment with stones. For this reason I have not made any significant changes. I changed the type of paper: recycled paper, in a few years’ time it has become old and yellow; it seems to contain too many acids. So I chose environmentally friendly paper: the manufacturer guarantees the use of recycled paper, elements non-polluting and trees from plantations managed also from an ecological point of view. The main innovation of this edition, is that I quitclaim the “Glossary”; the starting point of a new work: “LE PAROLE DELLE PIETRE”. In its place you’ll find a completely new and unpublished section: “PIETRE E ARTE”. I warmly invite you to read the preface on page 47.
Paolo Severi,
November 1999
Preface to the first edition.
“New Age” is a positive school of thought that is running our historical period; probably, it is the most positive trend we are facing. Its researchers create art, music, they study alchemy, they approach diverse traditions, from the oldest to the most adventuresome scientific theories to rituals of mild spells that captivate all with a helpful and disenchanted spirit; and from all these, feed off constructive teachings without bigotry or any prejudice. They revisit old traditions, and aim to live an eternal present in which differences between civilizations and cultures are an excuse to invent new great games. Among the latest games, there are the ones with precious stones. Nowadays these issues are ‘contemporary’, often handled by misleading commercial and cultural laid-back attitudes. “Treatment with precious stones” is not an alternative to aspirin. For the rest, the guiding principle of these pages is the always the same: “we are on the same page as the stones!”
– PIETRE PREZIOSE E ARTE –
Preface to this section
It is the fourth of April 1999 as I write. A warm spring day spent on the Ticino looking for stones. While I was on tenterhooks for stones, and the Ticino can donate some very beautiful ones, I thought of a new edition for this book. I wanted to add a chapter, but I could not figure out what was missing. Certain stones enchant you for their harmony; you grasp history made up of the crumbling mountain, of water that rolls blunt rocks which, after years and kilometers, are in the form of rounded stones. All with the same story, yet all so different. Stones that heal; Stones and the Zodiac. Then what else? While I handled a gray, polished stone of a very harmonious form, as I watched it with the blue of the river in the background, among gravel islands, aquatic birds and a vegetation that had just sprouted leaves of spring, as I looked at the stone, I realized . That stone was full-strength harmony. So “Pietre che Curano”: a connection between stones and the inside of ourselves.; “Pietre e Arte”: a correlation between stones and our outside; ” Pietre e Arte”: a comparison between stones and harmony; between us and Everything. The stone in my hand, clean, elegant, harmonious, was a true example of natural art. Perhaps, that stone was a gift of the Spirit of the River; perhaps it was a whatsoever stone. In any case, what is inside us, outside us, and the harmony of the Whole are inextricably linked to stones, if only for that beautiful stone, which is now rests on the desk, next to the computer keyboard.
